Judge Sonia Sotomayor affirmed her belief in the right to privacy during hearings on Tuesday, when Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) questioned her views on Griswold v. Connecticut.
“There is a right to privacy,” she said. “The Court has found it in various places in the Constitution and has recognized rights under those various provisions of the Constitution.”
Griswold is the landmark Supreme Court case decided in 1965 in which the Court ruled that the right to privacy exists and is constitutionally protected. Citing the opinions in that case, Sotomayor said the right to privacy is “founded in the Fourth Amendment’s rights” and is “also found in the Fourteenth Amendment.”
She said “that is the precedent of the court, so it is settled law,” which seems to be her theme in the hearings so far. Kohl also questioned her on Bush v. Gore, Roe v. Wade, and Kelo v. City of New London, among others, and each time Sotomayor has answered that the court’s precedent is “settled law.”
